Conference Meeting
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I waited patiently for the lawyer to come get me from the meeting room. My/Jesse’s parents apparently wanted to tell me something so important that they had to involve their lawyers into this. I almost missed the damn meeting because I thought I lost my damn mind when I woke up again as Jesse.
Reality is reality, no matter how strange or weird all of this was, I had to roll with the punches.
The old Jesse was dead, the man named Winston Smith was the new jesse.
I played with the cup on the desk.
Gosh this was so damn boring!
“Ready.” The old bald lawyer said as he sneakily entered.
“Yeah, what’s all of this about?” I asked the man. He didn’t respond, instead he turned back and nodded to two people.
The two people happened to be My/Jesse’s parents. They entered the room shyly and sat across from me.
Wait…I think I’ve seen this scene-
The lawyer started speaking, he cited some New Mexico property law and said that I was getting evicted from my home.
We sat in dead silence. The lawyer was shuffling some papers and my parents were staring down.
Wow I was getting evicted from my own home.
“Isn’t it my home? Didn’t my aunt give it to me?” I knew it was their lawyer but he still had to follow the law.
“Mr. Pinkman, your parents are the listed owners, your aunt only permitted residential privileges.”
Oh shit that’s right!
I was too shaken to speak, this wasn’t good. I had 650 bucks in total now…I could find a homeless shelter but that was….suboptimal. If only Mr. White and I could cook. I could easily be able to make it all back.
Shit! Fuck!
There has to be some way out of this mess.
“I’ll move out in three weeks. Is that acceptable?”
The lawyer turned towards my parents for their opinion. The blonde lady that was my mother shook her head.
“I’m sorry Jesse but you’re going to have to move out.”
Oh shit…..I’m gonna be homeless!
“You got to give me two weeks at least, I mean I have to find a place to stay-”
“A DEA agent came looking for you Jesse, he came to our front door!” The blonde lady said anxiously.
HANK SHCRADER I’m gonna kill you!
“So?…” I said confidently.
“I saw your basement. I found your…laboratory!”
I wanted to lie and say it wasn’t true but…the truth was that I was ashamed. No mother should have to do what this lady was doing. I knew that she loved Jesse… I knew that she really did but she was just tired of watching me fail.
The lawyer got up and showed me pictures of the lab, he proceeded to threaten me with legal action if I didn’t leave from my…oops, I meant My Parents home.
I exhaled deeply.
“Give me a week…seven days and I’ll be out of your hair. I’ll even sign it if you don’t believe me.” It was my last ditch effort to negotiate.
The lawyer looked at my parents again. This time ‘My mother’ nodded.
YESSS! That gives me time. Time that I desperately need to organise myself.
I let out a sigh. I had a week before I was homeless, I had 600 dollars before I was completely broke.
Damn, crime really doesn’t pay!
“Do you have any Questions for us?” The lawyer’s words were sharp. I guess he just saw me as a petty criminal.
“No.” I say slowly,
“Then three days Mr. Pinkman.” He got up and motioned towards the door, my parents reluctantly got up and left. My mother kept glancing at me but eventually she left too.
I was all alone in the conference room again.
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I was in bed, laying there motionless. Slowly day by day Jesse’s memories were coming back to me, along with his bad habits. I had to learn to control myself, I never had a drug problem in my previous problem but it was physically grating for me to not be on something, anything drug related. I smoked cigarettes to alleviate the itch.
What was I going to do?
A week. I had a week before I was homeless and I had 600 bucks in my bank.
I couldn’t contact Mr. White for any more money, he told me to not contact him in any case. My friends Badger and Skinny Pete parents wouldn’t allow me into their homes so that goes out the window.
I kept looking at my red bike.
An idea started to take root inside of my head, if I played my cards right there was a way out of this bind.
“Jesse, are you okay?” I heard an old lady speak, her voice was so random that it scared the living crap out of me.
“Jesus.- Oh it’s you.” I forgot that she had the house keys with her, she was the property owner after all.
“Oh I didn’t mean to scare you.” She apologised quickly.
“Nah that’s alright. I forgot that you had the keys to the house…yo.” Sorry I had to do it.
“If you say so….are you using, again?” She had this very concerned face, I don’t know but I felt this irrational hatred towards her. She was kicking me out, potentially making me homeless and here she was showing concern for my well being.
I couldn’t stand hypocrites.
“Yo lay off of me mom. You got your wish, I’ll be out in a week. What more do you want me to do?” I asked irritatedly.
She kept quiet, probably not wanting to antagonise me. Soon enough she went away without pestering me anymore. I would feel bad about the way I talked to her, if she hadn’t kicked me out of my home but I digress.
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A week later.
“So a thousand for the bike and I get my RV back.” I appealed to Clovis, Badger’s cousin. If I get my RV back then I could sleep in it until Mr. White was free.
“700 hundred more for cleaning your felonious laboratory.”
Ah…shit.
“Look Clovis, I’m short on cash now but I could give you my bike and 500 dollars. It’s all i got yo!”
He looked uncertain. I had to push some more.
“You give me a month and I’ll pay you the remaining 200. I promise you. My word is my bond and all that.”
I offered him keys to my bike. Come on take it dude!
Clovis decided to give me a break and took the keys from me.
“You better pay me back the 200 or else…”
“Okay, okay you got it. I’ll pay it to you on time.”
I didn’t want to hear his threats anymore. I could take the RV now and be on my merry way.
I decided to stock up on fuel for the RV and food for me. I was not making the same mistakes Jesse did in the TV show. I was not going to end up becoming someone’s slave.
I drove all the way to our usual spot in the desert, thankfully Mr. White was free today so we could cook up a batch. He was there already when I reached our spot.
“Am I late?” I asked him,
“Not anything unusual. Let’s just cook Jesse.” Guess he got up on the wrong side of the bed today.
We both suited up and followed the appropriate safety.
Cooking was natural to me, like I was born to do it. I was a complete pro at it. Within three hours we were done and had enough amphetamine to give us 16,000 dollars each.
The real problem was that-
“So how much do you think you can sell on your own?” Mr. Prick over here interrupted my thought process.
“On my own?” I caught his subtle use of the word.
“Yeah…you! We both agree that both of us aren’t that eager to get in bed with another Tuco.”
“Yeah, no that’s not happening.” I concurred.
“So…you’re going to sell it yourself.” This guy is a bit…I don’t know how else to put it…annoying.
I grabbed the product and put it in a box.
“I’m not putting myself in the line of danger Yo. I’ll recruit some people I know to sell it.”
Mr. White got really pissed at that, “You’re not bringing an unknown entities into our operation-” But this time I interrupted him before he could finish.
“Look Mr. White, the DEA’s tagged me now. The moment your brother in law found my car while looking for you, I became a person of interest. The only way we can safely move this product is my way. Or do you want to wait for some time before selling it?”
Those were our only two options right now and Mr.White knew it. Once I got enough money I had to find a better supplier. I knew just the person. The problem was I didn’t want to advance the plot of Breaking Bad without being sure.
The way I saw it, once I make a proper million dollars I would retire, get a degree and start my accounting firm. It’s very doable but the problem is [glance at Mr.White]
He was still thinking things through.
The problem was that this asshole’s ego might bring me down with him.
“Look Mr. White it’s simple I know some people, people that I know I can trust. Once we have enough cash we can figure something out.” I removed my gloves and extended my right hand.
He looked at my arm for a few seconds. He was going to shake it, I knew it, he knew it. He was in a far more vulnerable state than I was, he really needed the money.
A few more tense seconds passed and then he finally shook my arm.
“Okay…okay, we’ll do it your way for now.”
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